Hospitality

A Homily for the Sixth Sunday in Trinitytide

Genesis 18:1-16; Romans 6:3; Matthew 5:20

Once again, today's Lesson from Genesis, chapter eighteen, brings us back into the story of Abraham. Last Sunday, we read that when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to [him] and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly" (Gen 17:1-2). It had been thirteen years since his last visitation when God had promised that Sarai, his aged wife, would conceive and give birth to a son (Gen 15).

The Lord confirmed this promise by establishing a covenant with Abram, changing his name to Abraham, and affirming the promise by a sign, the sign of circumcision. The Lord not only reaffirmed the promise of a child but also the promise that from Abraham would come a great nation, and they would inherit a good land. But most importantly, the Lord promised to be Abraham's God and the God of his descendants, who would be more numerous than the stars.

You see, the covenantal blessing is to possess God and to be possessed by Him, giving rise to the Shunamites' song, in which we sing "My beloved is mine, and I am his!" (Song 2:16). All of these blessed promises were Abraham's to hold as (and if) he walked blameless before God in righteousness and holiness. And now, we find Abraham sitting at the door of his tent encamped by an oak tree in the plains of a place called Mamre. And there, in the middle of the day, "The Lord appeared to Abraham." Moses writes,

"And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said."

This is the famous story of Abraham's visitation by God. He came to him in the form of a man, not a voice, or a vision, or a mysterious and indescribable appearing, by what is called a Theophany. The appearing of God- literally- near the oak of Mamre. Abraham sees God in the form of a man, accompanied by two other men.

Many sermons on Christian hospitality have been inspired by Abraham's generous response to the visit of three strangers. And there is a place for this, because Christian hospitality is important and a sign of the gospel to strangers. St. Paul would remind us, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" (Heb 13:2).

Other sermon writers will find in Abraham an example of how the Christian life should be lived hospitably towards God, the Divine Guest who visited us when we (like Abraham) weren't looking for him. And having seen him, we ran to him. And finding him, we bow before him and welcome him as a friend. Like Abraham, we serve him, offering him the very best we have to offer (as typified in the luxurious meal Abraham prepared). We seek and invite others to come and serve the Heavenly Guest as well, just as Abraham enlisted Sarah in the service of the Lord.

But what I want to contemplate this morning is the hospitality of God. Have you ever thought of Him this way? It begs the question, "How is God hospitable?" Now, here at St. Benedict's, we are a people who understand hospitality (and this is the grace of God). We go out of our way to make strangers feel welcome. That's precisely what biblical hospitality is. The Word philoxenia literally means "lover of strangers." In other words, we're not just talking about hosting people in our homes; it's far greater than that. It is in this sense (lovers of strangers) that we understand the hospitality of God.

You see, God extends hospitality first; he visited Abraham, not the other way around. Abraham's hospitality was in response to Divine hospitality. Remember, God loved us before we first loved Him. A second Greek word used for hospitality, xenodocheo, is a compound of xenos, which means "stranger," or "someone without the knowledge of, without a share in," and dechomai, which means to "receive," "accept," to "take with the hand."

Again, it was the Lord who first extended his hand to Abram when he was a moon worshipper in Chaldea. The point being: our God is the hospitable God who, in love, comes first to us. He makes friends of strangers, taking them by the hand and welcoming them to enjoy His friendship. As he did with Abraham, of whom St. James writes, "was called a friend of God" (Jas 2:23). Divine hospitality is compelled by the Divine desire for fellowship with those who bear his image.

God chooses to visit us. Have you ever thought about that? Were you filled with great expectation and excitement, fixing your hair, getting dressed, finishing that last cup of coffee, excited that God was going to visit you today? Choosing to extend his hospitality by condescending to us, namely by stepping out of heaven and stooping down to our creatural realities of time and place? And this is the great distinction between human hospitality and Divine hospitality: that God chooses to condescend, to come down in ways that we can receive his hospitable presence. Look how he chose to appear to Abraham in the common form of a man.

He didn't want to create unnecessary obstacles to their fellowship. We would say that by appearing in a common form, He accommodated Abraham and Sarah. We call such Divine accommodation hospitality. The Lord doesn't abhor human limitations, weaknesses, and sins, but rather, stoops down from his heavenly abode and voluntarily accepts them. You see, the uncommon God comes to us by common means.

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known" (Jn 1:18).

At the appointed time, the Eternal God came to this fallen world. He chose to visit humanity in the most accommodating way, by becoming like us. In fact, he came lowly, as a servant. The Apostle says, he "emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men" (Phil 2:7). He condescended himself, by stooping down from heaven and visiting us by the most familiar means of accommodation. Why? Because he loves strangers, and he desires to bring us into his love.

And when he ascended into heaven, did he forget to put in place another means of accommodating his presence with us? The answer is: no. For he constituted his bride, the church, his visible Body on earth. And he gave pastors and shepherds, visible, tangible, men to speak his words, to offer his forgiveness, to encourage, exhort, and to lead his people into prayer. The church is but a common people within whom the uncommon God chooses to make himself known.

And he gave this church the Scriptures, a book in which his divinely inspired Word speaks to us. God has spoken because he wants to be heard; he wants to be known, which is why he used human agency to give us the Holy Scriptures, which is the Word or God not of men, for "no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Pt 1:21).

See how hospitable our God is, who by his Spirit, speaks to us through humanly intelligible words; in ways that we can understand. Do you see the accommodation of his love? The Divine revelation of God is codified in common words. Words we can read, words we can speak, that we hear, so that he might become present to us as he was present with Abraham under that Oak Tree in Mamre. Nothing fancy. Nothing extraordinary. God chooses to visit us in common and ordinary things.

"In the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat, this is my Body, which is given for you; Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise, after supper, he took the Cup; and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of this; for this is my Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you, and for many, for the remission of sins; Do this, as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me."

Jesus hospitably invited the apostles to his table in the upper room. There, in love, he took the most common, ordinary things, bread and wine, and blessed them, and thereby instituted them as the means by which his grace, love, and assurance would be present to them after his ascension. How would he remain with them until his coming again? How would he appear to them after his departure into heaven? By what means would he visit them with his loving presence?

By common bread and wine. "This is my Body. This is my blood." Our heavenly Host sets a table before his people. At every single Eucharist, he prepares a meal and visits us. Thus, our Host becomes a Guest as well, but not only a guest, but also the food. What hospitality! As he did with Abraham, he appears to us in the bread and wine; we not only taste his hospitality but also see it, as the psalmist says, "O taste and see that the Lord is good!"

Through such common means as bread and wine, God visits us and we communion with him; we participate in the Divine life of God. This is precisely what the Apostle Paul understands to be happening in the sacrament of Holy Communion. Listen to what he says, "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?" (1 Cor 10:16-21). You see, Holy Communion is more than a remembering of when Christ visited us, but is the means by which he comes to us today.

My friends, He deigns to visit us with his spiritual presence every time we partake of his Eucharistic hospitality. Each and every Sunday, God chooses to stoop down and visit us, despite all our limitations, weaknesses, and sins. My friends, He speaks plainly and reveals himself in common things because he is the hospitable God, the God who eats with people. Common people in union with the uncommon and hospitable God.

Let us pray,

"O GOD, who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man's understanding: Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord." Amen+